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Pick a minute, any minute, say, between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Chances are that 60 seconds later the stock market will be doing the exact opposite of what it was doing one minute prior. There probably won't be a rhyme or reason, either.

There appears to be no end in sight to the gyrations that began in August—except for one thing: The speed of reversals seems to be increasing.

"The market feels like it's being driven by the hour," says Bernie McGinn, CEO of McGinn Investment Management. "The Greek debt problems have been in the news for a year now. How can it not be priced in? Who's going to be surprised if they default?"

Yes, confusion reigns, but there's one thing bears and bulls can agree on: Nobody makes steady money in a market that continually vacillates.

The market's commitment issues make it a trader's market. If you can't trade nimbly, then you'd better have a strong stomach for volatility. It might be awhile before the market decides on the following issues, each of which continues to whipsaw investors moment by moment: euro-zone sovereign debt problems, a U.S. recession, a Chinese recession, weak banks, inflation, deflation and weak job numbers. These factors are like the dial on a diabolical, oscillating torture machine expressly made for investors, and each day the operator turns the dial to a new position.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,913.38 on Friday, down 2% on the day but up 1.3% from the previous Friday's close. Nevertheless, it fell some 1,500 points, or 12%, in the just-ended third quarter and half that in September.

The Standard & Poor's 500, meanwhile, fell 2.5% Friday, leading to a 0.44% drop on the week, to 1131.42. The broader index is off 14% in the quarter, the second down quarter in a row, and off 7% in September.

The Nasdaq Composite finished at 2415, down 2.6% Friday, 2.7% on the week, 6.4% on the month and 13% for the quarter.

Some may draw solace—though not much—from history: The third quarter is typically the worst of the year. The one just ended was the weakest for the S&P 500 since 1928, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Going back to 1928, the fourth quarter has been the strongest, though, with the S&P averaging a gain of 2.4%, and 4.6% in the past 20 years. Feel better?

Rumors of bankruptcy swirled around
Eastman Kodak
(ticker: EK) Friday, and its stock fell by two thirds on the week, to 78 cents. at Friday's close. The once-proud member of the Dow said it has no intention of filing for bankruptcy.

SHARES OF MID-CAP drug company
Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings
(ENDP) have dropped by more than a third, to about 28 from nearly 43 in May, with little in the way of news to account for it. Endo is a mostly branded-drug company in pain management and urology, with a fast-growing generics business.

In September, its Qualitest unit voluntarily recalled birth-control pills because a packaging error could cause women to take the contraceptives incorrectly. But the shares began their sharp descent long before that and even before the broad market selloff that began in early August.

On the other side of the ledger, however, in early August Endo raised its 2011 earnings forecast to $4.55 to $4.65 per share, from $4.20 to $4.30 per share. The shares trade at a relatively low six times 2011 consensus earnings.

As a defensive and growing health-care company, one might expect Endo shares to withstand the broad market's 14% drop in the third quarter. Yet they are down twice as much.

Endo has lifted its revenue strongly and steadily every year since 2002, from $400 million to $1.7 million last year. It's projecting $2.7 billion to $2.8 billion this year, thanks to a couple of big acquisitions, most recently American Medical Systems Holdings.

Like all pharma firms, Endo is wrestling with a stricter Food and Drug Administration and patent risk. In particular its Lidoderm pain medicine—a bit less than 30% of post-merger revenue—faces generic competition by 2015. But that contribution to sales is down from 60% in 2008, as acquisitions have broadened the company's portfolio.

Endo earnings haven't grown as steadily as sales have, but the Chadds Ford, Pa., firm has been solidly profitable since 2002 while digesting various acquisitions.

The acquisitions risk is one the market might be ruminating about lately, says Harry Rady, who runs Rady Asset Management in San Diego. Synergies projected aren't always achieved, he notes. Still, the shares—trading at about five times 2012 consensus projections of $5.36 per share and the lowest P/E in Endo's history—are starting to look interesting, he says.

Jean Francois Comte, a principal at Lutetia Capital, goes further, saying the stock is "particularly compelling." The company's main businesses are in "pretty good segments" and it isn't so exposed to Obamacare risks. As for the acquisition risk, Endo's track record is good, he adds. Its history is one of stable, double-digit revenue growth and 30% operating margins, even through the financial crisis of 2008, he points out.

With a market capitalization of $3.3 billion, it is among the fastest growers in the mid-cap pharma space. It's hard to fathom why shares are down so much when investors seem desperate for reliable growth, says Comte. Lutetia owns Endo shares. As for acquisition risk, Endo itself could prove an attractive target to big pharma, where companies have plenty of cash, low debt costs and a big need for injections to their typically slower growth expectations.

WHILE SOME DEFENSIVE health-care firms sporting nice profitability and decent growth have seen their stock prices taken down sharply in the market's selloff since late July, others with no profits, and little realistic prospect of producing them in the next year or two, have seen their shares soar.

Case in point is
Westport Innovations
(WPRT), a Vancouver-based firm that makes combustion systems that use alternative fuels like natural gas to power truck engines. Wrapped in a green mantle, its shares have risen more than 40% since Aug. 8, to about 29. Westport dominates what is a small market, with engines mostly going to heavy-duty buses and garbage trucks.

The rise has come mainly on two factors, including the increasing media attention given to the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as an alternative to diesel and gasoline. Anglo-Dutch energy giant
Royal Dutch Shell
(RDSA), for example, has lately been pushing its LNG production prowess and signed an agreement with Westport to market LNG. With the U.S. awash in shale-gas production, LNG will probably be used more frequently to fuel trucks and possibly even cars.

Westport's fuel injectors, for example, make it possible for big rigs—and there about eight million of them in the U.S.—to run on natural gas and LNG instead of diesel. That's supposed to be cleaner and to lessen the country's dependence on foreign oil. Westport has a 50-50 joint venture with
Cummins Engine
(CUM) that produced about 4,000 engines with Westport technology in the 12 months ended June, according to Toronto-based National Bank Financial analyst Rupert Merer.

The other boost to the stock comes from potential federal subsidies for natural-gas-fired truck engines. Investors are awaiting congressional action on the NAT GAS Act of 2011, or HR1380, which still hasn't reached the floor of the House. As written, the act would subsidize up to $64,000, or roughly two thirds of the extra price an LNG or natural-gas combustion system costs to a truck buyer, points out Merer, who has an Underperform rating on Westport.

If the act is passed—and that's a big if—it will cost taxpayers about $5 billion, and it's hard to believe that a Congress trying to cut the country's huge debt load will put this on the front burner for action anytime soon. Moreover, while it's being pushed by billionaire energy-investor T. Boone Pickens, there's plenty of opposition. It's no slam-dunk.

Meanwhile, Westport has never made a penny of profit since going public in 1997. Revenue growth has been checkered. Based on the earnings per share that analysts expect for 2013, the stock carries a gargantuan price-to-earnings ratio of 874.

According to Merer, Westport would have to sell about 30,000 units to make $1.80 per share, which would leave a still-rich P/E of 17. He believes the demand for alternative combustion engines will grow but adds that Westport needs about $4 in EPS in 2013-2014 to justify the current price; hence his rating.

"You could see demand for 30,000 engines by 2017, and of course, there will be competitors to Westport," he says. Expect companies like
Daimler
(DDAIF), among others, to jump into the fray should demand rise. And if Congress passed the bill, Merer estimates it would generate demand for about 10,000 engines. That amount doesn't justify the current price.

Nor is there an existing, broad infrastructure—no natural-gas stations—to deliver LNG or natural gas to trucks with those engines. Meanwhile, South Africa's
Sasol
(SSL) announced a few days ago that it was planning to build a plant in the U.S. that turns natural gas into diesel fuel.

Merer's fair value for Westport is $16, or $6.50 per share for the joint venture and $9.50 for the rest of the company, which includes its research-and-development assets. The stock seems already to discount the kind of success it hasn't achieved, he adds.

A Westport spokesman said, in response to a request for comment, that the company isn't counting on the House bill for its 30% compound annual-growth-rate goal. LNG fuel is about half the cost of diesel at the pump, he points out. Additionally, the company expects annual revenue to jump to $236 million this year from $144 million pro forma last year.

A lot of things have to go right for Westport to justify the share price. If Westport's stock were an engine, it would be dangerously overheated.

Rollercoaster

Despite sizeable drops Wednesday and Friday, the Dow managed a 1.3% rise for the week. Merck, Exxon Mobil and J&J all rose more than 3%.